Numbers
by Carbucketty
Summary: Linda, a fixation, and the boys she'll always call by number.


_Two _is angry angry _angry _all the time, and Linda thinks it's perfect. He's always flailing around, punching another child in the face, grabbing _three _by the sleeve of his shirt and dragging him around like a ragdoll. But oh _my _he's beautiful when he gets so angry, there's no denying that.

And those cold blue eyes look like they have flames in them, but Linda doesn't know how strange that is for someone so _young _to be so _angry _all the time. All Linda knows is that there's something undeniably fascinating about the way his slender frame tenses up and he _pulls _his fist back really sharp-like and it stops! --

just as it's about to hit _one _square in the nose.

And she's thankful for _two _because he's the only reason she gets to see the three of them in the same room--

because _one _is always in the same place--

because _two _is always after _one_--

and because _three _would follow _two _to the ends of the Earth.

And she thinks that _two _is probably the one she would most like to kiss.

* * *

_Three _isn't pretty like _two_, but his face is still just as wonderful. Linda notices that he has a small hump in his nose and she deems it _absolutely adorable_.

He always looks like he's about to say something mean to someone but he never really does, unless it's some snide remark to _one--_

but one day Linda saw _three _sneak away from _two _to talk to _one _in secret and she thinks that maybe she'll use that as blackmail one day. "I saw you talking to him."

That would absolutely _kill _him.

Whereas everyone calls _two _fairskinned and claims that it's beautiful, _three _just looks very pale. Like he doesn't get a lot of sleep. Like he doesn't _want _a lot of sleep. _Three _looks sickly, not beautiful, but Linda can't imagine him any other way. It's just _him _and she wishes that he would pull off his goggles at least once when she was around so she can see if his dark circles are as pronounced as L's.

_Three _goes to the infirmary a lot and sometimes Linda fakes a headache just so she can be in there with him. _Two _is almost always sitting at his bedside, and they talk quietly, but never about what's wrong with _three--_

and Linda still doesn't know what's wrong with him.

But she decides that maybe _three _wouldn't be so bad to marry, because he seems like he's easy to put up with.

* * *

_One _is who she thinks about the least but wants the most.

Maybe this is because he never talks to her.

Because _two _talks to her. _Three _dignifies her existance with a glance.

But _one _is different, and his eyes are so wide, and his hands are so small... and she just wants him to look at her, and maybe smile-- but everyone knows that _one _never smiles, unless it's that one smile that he gets when _two _is on the verge of absolutely hysteria and _three _grabs him by his thin waist and pulls him away.

That's when _one _just_ smiles _and he taps his little fingers together-- and that's the only time he ever really smiles. _Two _never sees it. _Three _does and Linda's sure that the jerky movement he does upon seeing it is a cold chill, and the smile is so...

... she can't even explain how she feels when she sees that smile.

She rules out her previous theory that _three _would be nice to marry, because now she thinks that _one _would be even better; he would take care of their home and their children as carefully as he takes care of his toys.

(She never sees how those nice, detailed cities he builds are torn down by malfunctioning robots, and all the inhabitants die.)

* * *

They leave her, slowly, but she still thinks about them everyday.

And one day, two of them are dead and one of them is as far away as he could possibly be--

and she talks about them to the man who is brave enough to propose to her, but after he realizes that she is never going to stop talking about them, he decides that he can't live with her and this fixation on these boys that she calls by number.

* * *

**notes and stuff**: Wow. Uhm. Yeah. I wanted to write a Linda-fic and I wanted her to be a little warped... and that's what I got. Don't really know what to think about it. Review, please?


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